Ojibwa - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs.
For the Ojibwa the supernatural world held a multitude of spiritual
beings and forces. Some of these beings and forces—Sun, Moon,
Four Winds, Thunder, and Lightning—were benign, but
others—ghosts, witches, and Windigo, a supernatural cannibalistic
giant—were malevolent and feared. Presiding over all other
spirits was Kiccimanito, or Great Spirit, although this belief may have
been a product of European influence. Ojibwa religion was very much an
individual affair and centered on the belief in power received from
spirits during dreams and visions. For this reason, dreams and visions
were accorded great significance and much effort was given to their
interpretation. The power obtained through them could be used to
manipulate the natural and supernatural environments and employed for
either good or evil purposes. Missionization by the Anglican and Roman
Catholic churches began during the nineteenth century, but conversion
and Christian influence were limited prior to the twentieth century. In
the mid-twentieth century the religious orientation of many Ojibwa was a
mixture of Christian and traditional native elements.

Religious Practitioners.
In their vision quests, some young men received more spiritual power
than others, and it was they who in later life became shamans. Several
different types of shamans existed, the type being determined by the
sort of spiritual power received.

Ceremonies.
The most important religious ceremony for the Southeastern Ojibwa and
the Southwestern Chippewa was the Midewiwin, or Medicine Dance, of the
Medicine Lodge Society. The Midewiwin ceremony was held semiannually (in
the late spring and early fall among the nineteenth-century Wisconsin
Chippewa) and lasted for several days. The Northern Ojibwa did not
practice the Midewiwin Ceremony, although the Plains Ojibwa did. Among
the latter, however, it was exceeded in importance by the Sun Dance,
performed annually in mid-June in order to bring rain, good health, and
good fortune.

Arts.
Ojibwa music was individualistic. Musical instruments included
tambourines, water drums, rattles, and flutes. Songs were derived from
dreams and had magical purposes, such as ensuring success in hunting and
other economic activities, invoking guardian spirits, and curing
sickness. Among the Southwestern Chippewa porcupine quill work employing
a floral motif was an important technique in the decoration of buckskin
clothing and leather bags. After European contact glass beads replaced
quills in decorative applications, although the floral motif was
maintained.

Medicine.
Disease and illness were thought to be caused by sorcery or as
retribution for improper conduct toward the supernatural or some social
transgression. Curing was performed by members of the Midewiwin, or
Medicine Lodge Society, into which both men and women were inducted
after instruction by Mide priests, payment of fees, and formal
initiation. Shamans, with their powers derived from dreams and visions,
were curers of sickness, but so, too, were others knowledgeable in the
use of medicinal plants.

Death and Afterlife.
Upon death the corpse was washed, groomed, dressed in fine clothing,
and wrapped in birchbark before burial in a shallow grave. Following
death, the soul of the deceased was believed to journey westward for
four days to an afterlife in the sky. Among the Southwestern Chippewa
the deceased was also painted prior to burial and lay in state in a
wigwam. The funeral ceremony was attended by friends and relatives and
was conducted by a Mide priest, who talked to the deceased and offered
tobacco to the spirits. After the ceremony was concluded the body was
removed through a hole in the west side of the wigwam to the grave site,
where it was buried along with personal possessions. The door of the
wigwam was not used when removing the deceased for fear that the
departed soul would return through the door. In later times a long, low,
gabled plank house was constructed over the grave. The Plains Ojibwa
also employed the gabled grave house and left offerings of food and
water at the grave house for four days after burial for the
soul's subsistence on its journey to the afterlife.

User Contributions:

My husbands family is Chippewa, and I am seeking information about funerals and burial customs. If you can offer any references or any help finding what I need to plan a funeral, could you please email me? Thank you so much. Dee

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I am doing research on the Chippewa customs and rituals of the tribes in Upper Michigan. My needs are in the customs regarding dying, death, funeral, burial, and the after life. Are you able to supply me with this information.

This was a very helpful website and I learned a lot about the Chippewa culture! It was extremely helpful in the completion of my project in which I had to describe carious aspects of the Chippewa lifestyle (i.e. religion, spirituality, militarism, treaties, etc.)